38 The Stonechat. 



fluttering insect. All attempts of tlie stranger to investigate its family concerns 

 are met by the Stonechat with alarm and resentment ; to anyone seeking the nest 

 it is most confusing to hear the two parent birds (hacking in different places, 

 rarely in the same bush ; the male also from time to time uttering a queer double 

 note, in which he seems to proclaim himself a Wheatear.* 



The nest is frequently placed in some depression of the soil partly or wholly 

 concealed by herbage, below a furze-bush, or shrub ; so that one may look beneath 

 the very cover where it is situated, and not perceive it ; it is always on the 

 ground : its construction is loose, but tolerably neat, dry grass or rootlets and a 

 little moss being iised for the outside ; finer grass, hair, feathers and sometimes 

 wool, for the lining. 



The eggs vary from four to six in number, and are not unlike those of the 

 Whinchat ; but they are greener in tint, and usually much more heavily zoned 

 and spotted with red-brown ; the spotting sometimes covers a much larger area ; 

 but frequently forms a suffused patch on the larger end, or a broad belt near the 

 end ; occasionally it is barely indicated : I once took eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher 

 similarly marked, and which, but for their slightly paler ground-tint, might have 

 been mistaken for eggs of this species. 



The song of the Stonechat is soft, low, irregular but rather pleasant to listen 

 to ; it reminds me somewhat of the first efforts of the Indigo-Bunting of N. 

 America, when that bird is "recording" his song. The call-note, which has 

 nothing to do with his scolding, or complaining notes, is a sharp tsik, tsik, tsik, 

 almost like the sound produced by striking two flints together. 



The Stonechat feeds on insects, their larvae, spiders, small worms, and during 

 the winter on seeds : moths and butterflies it catches on the wing, and I was 

 much interested, on one occasion, in watching it in pursuit of a Vapourer-moth, 

 the circling onward flight of which seemed for some time to baffle it, though 

 success at last rewarded its efforts to seize it. I have seen a House-Sparrow 

 utterly nonplussed by the progressive gyrations of this little moth ; the difficulty 

 of catching it being increased by the fact that, when pursued, it constantly rises 

 higher and higher ; in the capture of such a moth only a bird with the agility 

 of a Flycatcher or Wagtail can hope for success. 



The flight of this species is short and undulating, its greatest efforts being 

 made in pursuit of prey : when roosting or hopping, its tail is incessantly in 

 motion: if terrified, this bird seems to prefer concealment to flight, always seeking 

 the densest cover in the immediate neighbourhood, but sometimes revealing its 

 whereabouts by uttering its alarm cry : even when the nest is approached, as already 



* This scolding uote is best expressed by the words hweet-jurr the terminal r having a vibrant sound. 



